The Goblins Fan Forum

I confirm, it works.

Can we mess with the thread icons, so it's a little easier to tell types of threads apart? It's basically impossible to tell a normal thread with unread posts from a stickied thread with no unread posts. They have the exact same icon, but with very slightly different shades of brown. It'd be nice if stickied threads had shields with thumbtacks on them or something to differentiate them a bit.

I'd second that. I also hate the reply button in its current form

SeeAMoose wrote:We could set that up. I've actually been trying to find a way to give game masters the ability to move their own threads but it doesn't seem to be possible.

Any progress on the recruiting place for games? (I didn't see anything when I just checked, of if it's there, my bad.)

Yeah, there's been talk of changing the shield sprites for "shields of wonder". I have cool ideas, but I lack the ability I believe to draw something of the kind that would turn out looking okay, since I can only draw pixelart.

Anyways, I'll just post my ideas here... You know... Just in case anyone would be interested.

Normal topic: Slightly dulled shield of wonder
Normal topic with new posts: Normal shield with the gems lighting up
Hot topic: Similar to normal topics, but with the shield being "monstrous" (like with that one adventurer that brought it to the village?)
Sticky topic: Metal tentacles sprouting from the shield
Announcement/global topic: Wall of brasmoon face

I think those are a good idea at least.

M0rtimer wrote:Yeah, there's been talk of changing the shield sprites for "shields of wonder". I have cool ideas, but I lack the ability I believe to draw something of the kind that would turn out looking okay, since I can only draw pixelart.

Anyways, I'll just post my ideas here... You know... Just in case anyone would be interested.

Normal topic: Slightly dulled shield of wonder
Normal topic with new posts: Normal shield with the gems lighting up
Hot topic: Similar to normal topics, but with the shield being "monstrous" (like with that one adventurer that brought it to the village?)
Sticky topic: Metal tentacles sprouting from the shield
Announcement/global topic: Wall of brasmoon face

I think those are a good idea at least.

It's a cute idea, but the gems on them would be pretty tiny, so it'd be nice if the difference was a bit more visible. People are going to be glancing at them for information, so the differences should be intuitive and obvious, like red shields for unread posts and darkened brown shields for no unread posts. So if threads with no new posts had completely dulled gems and threads with new posts had brightly lit gems, that might be a bit better, but still possibly a little too subtle. And ordinarily I'd be a little iffy on having unique icons for hot topics and sticky topics, but your ideas seem intuitive enough that I think people will get what they're supposed to mean.

Also the wall of brassmoon face for global topics is brilliant.

Yeah I don't take full credit though. Moose suggested to use the wall of brassmoon face for the FAQ icon, and I figured it'd also be great for an announcement topic.

Also, I'd also have the shield change slightly from color, not only the gems. Similar as to how it is now, to make it more clearer. Also, hot topics the only change currently is they gain a little icon, so I think that'd be alright.

Moose did say that he and the Duke are working on it when they have the free time.

I also agree that we need new icons... I keep having to double check there's no arrow indicating a non-read post

Godbot wrote:People are going to be glancing at them for information, so the differences should be intuitive and obvious, like red shields for unread posts and darkened brown shields for unread posts. So if normal posts with no new threads had completely dulled gems and threads with no new posts had brightly lit gems, that might be a bit better, but still possibly a little too subtle. And ordinarily I'd be a little iffy on having unique icons for hot topics and sticky topics, but your ideas seem intuitive enough that I think people will get what they're supposed to mean.

I suspect you mean "unread" then "read" and "no new posts" and "new posts"?

CelineSSauve wrote:

I suspect you mean "unread" then "read" and "no new posts" and "new posts"?

Edited. Thanks for proofreading my post, I guess?

Wolfie wrote:I keep having to double check there's no arrow indicating a non-read post

Personally I use "View unread posts" feature. It will be even more handy if you read every topic.

gamecreator wrote:

Wolfie wrote:I keep having to double check there's no arrow indicating a non-read post

Personally I use "View unread posts" feature. It will be even more handy if you read every topic.

I do use that once in a while, but if the icons were clearer it wouldn't be an issue.. which is what the other Admins are working on. Which was my point.

I don't mind laughing at myself for clicking on a post that I've read in its entirety.

Is there any way to display the gender information next to our avatars for people who opt in?

Maybe, I'll look into it.

I'm just musing... shouldn't the Games forum have an OOC subforum (Within the Forum Games part, not outside)? There are several threads that are OOC threads for ongoing games, and there are also threads that are just general chit/chat game or gaming related. Not that it is disturbing or anything, I was just wondering whether it would make finding / using them more comfortable...

While we are at that, if the GodSchool thread restarts at any point, will it be moved to the resources? If it also restarts with tasks for the students, that could stay in the forum games, though.

We can always sticky certain threads like GodSchool.

ok guys I don't like being the odd one out here ( son of odd I know,super funny )
but well I really think the hidden thread should become a part of the gaming section again....
that place was our hang out I had a ton of fun sharing just random day to day crap. then the forum broke got sucked in a big black hole destroying every thing
pieces were put back together and we built a new forum, one that hopefully be our last.
it's all great and all, it even got that new forum smell I kinda like, but well hidden doesn't really work as a thread as it own, it's practically dead now.
in the old forum if you blinked there would be like 30 new posts, now the posts can be counted on a hand... hidden doesn't work as a stand-alone kind of thing it needs the people of the gaming community,
and with the thread on the other side of the forum traffic is slow. and well with out hidden a large part of what mad this forum so fun in the first place is lost....

it worked the last time, let's trying again

I agree. Hidden seems pretty slow as it's own forum. It did get more hits when it was part of games.

Sorry, but there's a reason I set up the new forum the way I did. You may have noticed that all of the major subforums have been moved up a level including one I've long resisted moving up (and it seems to be flourishing with the new layout). The reason was that I wanted you guys to have to use the index more and see that there were more things going on in other parts of the forum. I want this to be a more interconnected community. Additionally, a hidden forum has value for the whole forum, it isn't something that should be buried and reserved for one subset of users. If it isn't getting traffic it's because you guys aren't using it. If you want the subforum to prosper, use it. The same people who seem to care so much about it are in games, so all you have to do is convince them to go and use it while it's located elsewhere. If it doesn't the best you can hope for is that I'll either move it up the index page (which I may do anyways) or that I'll move it into the Discussion forum, which presumably everybody uses.

The Hidden forum has probably more active threads right now than it's ever had before. The particular threads might not be quite as busy right now, but it's not that different than it was before.

If you feel it's slower, it's probably just that not everyone's came back who maybe used the thread, or people don't have as many personal things they wish to be sharing right now! It IS a forum just for things to do more with our personal lives after all.

I don't know, but you can probably create similar threads in Communities or Forum Games if you want. They just won't be hidden from spiders and bots.

Edit: Although duplicate threads are against the rules... but still. They don't have to be exact duplicates.

How about a separate section for OOC game chatter and Recruitment, though?

CelineSSauve wrote:How about a separate section for OOC game chatter and Recruitment, though?

Pretty sure Moose is considering it, though I don't know whether he's going to go ahead with it or not. Probably best to just wait and see.

come on this is just getting crazy, what are we gonna do next, sort all the games I separate sub forums all in alphabetic order...
there is a thing as to much structure

askstoomuch wrote:come on this is just getting crazy, what are we gonna do next, sort all the games I separate sub forums all in alphabetic order...
there is a thing as to much structure

All I'm asking for is a way for someone who is not in a game, or looking to start a game, or looking to join another game, to easily find if anyone is recruiting (or to have a place to post where possible players can look).

Since recruitment threads turn into the OOC thread, I figure it makes sense just to leave them in the same spot. If it said "Recruit" or "OOC" in the thread title, you know which it is.

The current "grab bag" where a dozen or so active games can easily toss a new recruiting thread down to the bottom and out of sight, is the main reason I'm not offering to run anything.